Theresa Celebran Jones was born and raised in Connecticut and has moved cross-country four times. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two young daughters. She works full-time as a technical writer and is an MFA dropout. Her only other hobbies are reading, taking pictures, scrapbooking, and listening to hip hop. Clearly she has no social life.
You've heard of Nicki Minaj, right? She's the only female rapper anyone is talking about these days, signed to Young Money by Lil Wayne. Her gimmick includes nonexistent punchlines and rapping in a bad British accent. She also goes by the precious nickname, Harajuku Barbie, presumably inspired by Harajuku fashion made popular in the United States by Gwen Stefani. Please, hold your groans.
The Asian American blogosphere has, over the past couple of weeks, been abuzz over publicity stills for K-Town, dubbed "The Asian Jersey Shore." A lot of folks are afraid it'll make Asian Americans (Korean Americans, in particular) look bad, will introduce another stereotype to the mainstream (you never know, this Asian Men Hate Wearing T-Shirts stereotype might really catch on), and will cause lasting damage to the Asian American image, etc. But I think the general consensus seems to be, "I am fearful but also intrigued."
Via Angry Asian Man comes this episode of The Moth Podcast called "Chink." Told by Master Lee, the story is about his experience growing up as the only Chinese kid in his school in West Hartford, Connecticut, a town not far from where I grew up. Naturally, he was bullied and called a chink and got into fist fights every day, until a Bruce Lee flick came to the local drive-in. It's hilarious, and it felt like home.
On June 25th, the hubby and I took our daughter to Ultra Gabba Gabba!, a Yo Gabba Gabba/Ultraman double feature event put together by the JACCC, Visual Communications, and Giant Robot. It was our first family event in Los Angeles, and it was glorious.
Claire posted a great Openish Thread the other day: Should Asian American parents talk to their multiracial kids about racism? My response was essentially, "Yes, but how?"
We just embarked on our cross country road trip and have made it about a third of the way to our new home in Los Angeles. We had a tearful goodbye with my family -- while I've already left Connecticut twice, my mom and aunt never expected I'd move with my daughter. So obviously I couldn't escape without a lot of guilt-tripping, a lot of "Why are you doing this to us?!" and even more "Go to L.A., just leave the baby here!" I expected that much, but I didn't expect to be so emotional myself.
We've been in home limbo for the past month or so. In a week and a half, my husband, our daughter and I will set off on our road trip from Connecticut to our new home in Los Angeles, CA. My mom is taking over the house we currently live in, so we've been living together since she sold her condo three weeks ago. It has been...interesting.
Growing up, I experienced deliberate, unabashed racism on a daily basis — anti-Chinese jokes, the slant-eyes gesture, being called "Ching Chong" and spoken to in a fake Chinese accent — but all at the hands of my own cousins.
